BRATTLEBORO, VT (Oct. 28, 2014)—The Brattleboro Retreat will present the hospital’s 2014 Anna Marsh Award to Vermont State Representative Bill Lippert of Hinesburg at the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus event to be held on Saturday, November 1 at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro.
Representative Lippert has served in the Vermont Legislature since his initial appointment by Governor Howard Dean in 1994. Throughout his career in the mental health and substance field, Lippert combined his activism for the LGBT community with his professional pursuits. While executive director of the Counseling Service of Addison County, Lippert also served on the founding board of Outright Vermont, a statewide LGBTQ youth-serving organization. In 2000, as the only openly gay member of the General Assembly, Lippert was instrumental in the creation of Civil Unions, the nation’s first legal recognition of same-sex couples. A thirty-year resident of Hinesburg, Lippert and his marriage partner, Enrique Peredo, recently celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary.
Representative Lippert will be the sixth honoree to receive the Anna Marsh Award in recognition for advocacy on behalf of those with mental illness and addiction. Past honorees have included Hollywood actor Ken Howard, the late Senator Robert Gannett, the Retreat’s first female board chair, Julie Peterson, former Retreat board member, Larry Cassidy, and last year’s honoree, Governor Peter Shumlin.
“We are so pleased to recognize Bill both for his professional career in the mental health field, as well as for his civil rights advocacy on behalf of Vermont’s LGBTQ community,” said Bette Abrams, Chair of the Retreat’s Board of Trustees. “He has devoted his life to making our state a more inclusive, equitable place and we are delighted to recognize him for this important work.”
“I am honored to receive this award on behalf of our LGBT sisters and brothers who have gone before us. In the course of my lifetime, as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender people, we have gone from being labeled with psychiatric disorders simply for being our full selves, to being affirmed and welcomed members of the community. Brattleboro Retreat’s LGBT Program, which offers life-affirming services to our LGBT sisters and brothers in need of mental health and addiction care, is an important symbol of this profound change.”
Tickets are on sale now for the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus event with the presentation of the Anna Marsh Award to Representative Lippert. Tickets start at $20 for balcony seating, $30 for rear orchestra, and $50 for front orchestra. A limited number of $125 premium tickets are still available, which include a private, pre-show reception at Duo Restaurant inside the newly-renovated Brooks House. Proceeds from the event support the Retreat’s LGBT Program, which provides mental health and addiction care to individuals in crisis who identify as LGBTQA.
Tickets are available online at www.brattlebororetreat.org/chorus or by calling 800-838-3006. The event is likely to sell-out, so interested concert-goers should purchase their tickets promptly.
The Brattleboro Retreat, founded in 1834, is a not-for-profit, regional specialty psychiatric hospital and addictions treatment center, providing a full range of diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitation services for individuals of all ages and their families. Nationally recognized for its premier treatment in behavioral healthcare, the Brattleboro Retreat offers a high quality, individualized, comprehensive continuum of care including inpatient, partial hospitalization, residential and outpatient treatment.
###
